{"id":15438,"date":"2025-06-26T05:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T05:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15438\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T05:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T05:13:09","slug":"vocally-challenged-elvis-costello-snatches-victory-from-jaws-of-defeat-in-san-diego-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15438\/","title":{"rendered":"Vocally challenged Elvis Costello snatches victory from jaws of defeat in San Diego \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Elvis Costello, who performed Tuesday night at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, a musical alchemist? A subversive tightrope walker? An underachiever? An overachiever? A wry political commentator? Or an unlikely combination of all of the above?<\/p>\n

No less pertinent, is Costello past his prime \u2014 as was painfully suggested by his very craggy opening songs, \u201cMystery Dance,\u201d \u201cMiracle Man\u201d and \u201cWatching The Detectives?\u201d Or is this 70-year-old troubadour still able to strike aural gold? Happily, he did just that during his four concluding songs, \u201cPump It Up,\u201d \u201c(I Don\u2019t Want To Go To) Chelsea,\u201d \u201cRadio, Radio\u201d and the Nick Lowe-penned \u201c(What\u2019s So Funny \u2018Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?\u201d<\/p>\n

These are key questions posed during Costello\u2019s 22-song performance Tuesday with his superb, four-man band, The Imposters. The answers, much as at his similarly haphazard 2022 San Diego show at The Shell, are mostly affirmative.<\/p>\n

\n

Elvis Costello, inspired one moment, flat the next, delivered a whack-a-mole of a San Diego concert<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If that seems like a contradiction, well, so is Costello, whose current \u201cRadio Soul! The Early Songs of Elvis Costello\u201d tour focuses on songs off the nine albums he made with his previous band, The Attractions, from 1977\u2019s \u201cMy Aim Is True\u201d to 1986\u2019s \u201cBlood & Chocolate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2003 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, he boasts one of the richest and most diverse songbooks in pop-music history. He also has an unwavering determination to follow his muse anywhere it leads him, no matter how much doing so has alienated some fans who embraced his impassioned music in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n

That determination is to his credit.<\/p>\n

Costello is the only artist anywhere who has made full albums with Burt Bacharach, a string quartet, a jazz big band, the London Symphony Orchestra, New Orleans music legend Allen Toussaint, leading hip-hop group The Roots and Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. His tireless inquisitiveness and constant quest to explore new artistic vistas are all worth cheering.<\/p>\n

Alas, Costello has \u2014 over the past decade or so \u2014 also become one of the most inconsistent performers in any idiom, at least when it comes to his increasingly strained and erratic singing voice.<\/p>\n

\n

Elvis Costello perseveres in marathon San Diego show<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That can make his wildly uneven concerts a sonic roller coaster of dizzying highs and wince-inducing lows. Accordingly, his Tuesday show at Humphreys hit both extremes.<\/p>\n

For most of his first 10 songs, Costello\u2019s singing was ragged and hoarse. Notes that once came easily eluded him altogether. His pitch wavered so much that he periodically sounded like a bleating barroom drunk.<\/p>\n

Even when he recited the lyrics to \u201cWatching The Detectives,\u201d rather than sing them, Costello struggled to stay in key. Even so, he seemed engaged and bantered easily with the equally engaged audience. But his voice repeatedly let him down and did a major disservice to his exceptionally well-crafted songs, which on Tuesday included such rarely heard gems as \u201cClubland\u201d and \u201cStrict Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OnElvis Costello & The Imposters performed Tuesday at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay. Shown from left are Costello, drummer Pete Thomas, bassist\/vocalist Davey Faragher and guitarist\/vocalist Charlie Sexton. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Mercifully, nearly an hour into his performance, the musical alchemy began.<\/p>\n

The turning point came with Costello\u2019s 11th selection, \u201cDeportee,\u201d a stripped-down, reinvention of his 1984 song, \u201cThe Deportees Club,\u201d performed anew in a low-key, semi-unplugged setting. Trading his electric guitar for an acoustic one, Costello still sounded raspy. But the roughness of his voice lent added pathos to \u201cDeportees\u2019 \u201d stark lyrics about ill-fated immigrants confronting harsh realities in the United States.<\/p>\n

His singing improved markedly with the next four selections, which Costello also performed on acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of the lower volume and his dogged perseverance, Costello suddenly found his voice on an ingenious mash-up of his 1978 song \u201cLiving In Paradise\u201d and Van Morrison\u2019s 1970 hit, \u201cDomino.\u201d The two were combined, he told the cheering audience, \u201cto show you where I stole (\u2018Paradise\u2019) from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costello scored equally well with his understated, achingly slow version of \u201c(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,\u201d and a terrific, salsa-music-tinged take on \u201cClubland\u201d (which deftly incorporated The Specials\u2019 1981 song, \u201cGhost Town\u201d).<\/p>\n

His impeccable band provided finely calibrated accompaniment, with Pete Thomas playing brushes on a small stand-up drum kit and Davey Faragher switching to an upright electric bass.<\/p>\n

Keyboardist Steve Nieve \u2014 who, like Thomas, was a member of Costello\u2019s first band of note, The Attractions \u2014 added dazzling piano and organ punctuations without ever detracting from the music at hand. Guitarist Charlie Sexton only soloed a few times, but made his presence felt when he did. His six-string played added depth and texture to songs that Costello had originally done with just one guitar, and the band played with an admirable combination of fire and finesse throughout.<\/p>\n

\"OnLongtime Elvis Costello keyboardist Steve Nieve, left, sometimes performed on a wind-blown Melodica during some songs at Costello\u2019s Tuesday concert at Humphreys with his band, The Imposters. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Costello and The Imposters returned to full-on electric mode with \u201cEveryday I Write The Book,\u201d skillfully recast as a 1960s R&B song. Seven more songs followed, including \u201cWonder Woman\u201d and the crowd-pleasing \u201cAlison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costello sometimes strained and sang a few bum notes. But he sounded largely revitalized, as he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, transforming what began as a disappointing concert into an improbable triumph.<\/p>\n

Although he never mentioned President Trump by name, Costello made several biting references to him on stage. In one instance he did so, simply by invoking the titles of some of his vintage songs, most notably \u201cWaiting For The End Of The World,\u201d<\/p>\n

These sentiments were reinforced by the recordings that immediately preceded and followed the concert, Heaven 17\u2019s 1981 song, \u201c(We Don\u2019t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang\u201d and Mandy Miller\u2019s perky 1956 song, \u201cNellie The Elephant\u201d (with its refrain of \u201cOff she went with a trumpety-trump \/ Trump, trump, trump\u201d).<\/p>\n

Originally Published: June 25, 2025 at 5:20 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is Elvis Costello, who performed Tuesday night at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, a musical alchemist? A subversive…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,5424,3549,7264,1072,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-15438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-music-and-concerts","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-things-to-do","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114747959168586955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}